Monday, September 21, 2015

Footman James Manchester Classic Car, Event City, Manchester

Last year’s show, if I'm being honest, was a little disappointing from a mix of cars point of
view. Well this year this problem had been solved and full credit to the
organizers for the effort in putting an awesome event together. Now because I
don’t want to dwell on it, the only issue I had with the “classic” was the
amount of modern vehicles on show. Now I’m not talking about the cars now
verging on the 00’s (after all these are now 15 years old) but virtually brand
new cars. I’m looking at the Civic Type R’s, Audi R8’s and other supercars.
Right now that’s out of the way let’s get on with the show.

The jump in quality and more importantly types of cars was just
fantastic to see, I wasn’t expecting it to have moved on this much from last
year. There was so much to see with a huge club turn out and gems everywhere so
be expecting a full features on some of cars over the next few weeks.

One club stand for some reason just stood out for me was the Reliant
Sabre and Scimitar Owners Club, it had a great
variety of models on display with the Nissan engined raced prep’d Scimitar just
adding to the whole feeling of it. Don’t get me wrong there were some other
clubs with a great stands but this one just did for me.

Now let’s get back to the gems dotted about the huge halls, and I’m sure
it extended into another this year. You know it’s a good show when you come
across an early Ferrari F40, a Bristol Fighter, as well as a Clan Clover,
Matra’s and the hod rods on Rainy City Cruisers stand.

Add into the mix all the usual suspects and car dating from pre-war,
post-war, 70’s, my personal favourite the 80’s and extending into the neo-retro
cars of the 90’s. Oh and a huge turnout of vehicles from across the pond.

Actually it was nice to see a couple of Mazda MX3's something you wouldn’t
expect to see but are where the classic car movement will be entering in the not
too distant future.

The stand out car had to be this absolutely stunning Jaguar, it just
takes your breath away. Firstly it’s huge, even by modern standards it had road
presence, but that colour could it any more perfect.

Now if there’s one thing this event does that a little different and is
always good to see is the short rally stage and this year the retro and Group B
cars were running. The down side, as you could probably guess it was popular
but unlike last year there was no grandstand seating area which meant trying to
see through a forest of other spectators.

But when you did get to see, or rather hear, it was well worth it.
There’s nothing better than see a purpose built car being thrashed around with
its exhaust popping to the delight of fellow petrolheads, perfect.

One my favourite things to see are the "project" or "barn finds" awaiting restoration, and there were a few on show.

Traders were once again well represented and the products available have
expanded, I can see this only getting bigger and better and becoming one of the
reasons people attend.

A great event that was, if I’m being honest, a pleasant surprise based
on the experience of last year and now one I’m really looking forward to
attending next year to see how much better it can get. It was a credit to all
involved.